In the past, wooden studs have been connected by nail-type fasteners to wooden top and bottom beams to form a building frame especially for residential purposes. More recently, the studs and tracks have been provided by roll formed sheet metal members that have a generally U-shaped or C-shaped cross section. Various types of fastening techniques have been employed to fasten metal studs and tracks together. For the most part, the fastening of metal studs to metal tracks has been accomplished by self-tapping screws.
Several attempts have been made to use the material of the studs and tracks to make the fastening without the necessity of additional fasteners. Smolik U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,096 discloses the use of channels in inturned flanges in the sidewalls of the upper and lower tracks to form pockets into which the end of the stud will insert and can be twisted to snap into place. Johnson U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,665 discloses the use of inturned flanges in the sidewalls of metal studs with the ends of the studs nesting into the tracks and the protrusions in the side walls of the stud and tracks interfitting to lock the studs to the tracks.
Doke U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,352 discloses a wall section module in which the metal stud and metal tracks are connected by a rivet fastener but does not provide holes in the metal stud or indentations in the track for stud locating purposes.
Weening U.S. Pat. No. 3,082,850 teaches a structural panel produced by interlocking wall portions of rectangular tubular members whereby aligned holes of different diameters in adjacent members are caused to be deformed by a tool to produce interlocking flange portions at spaced intervals.
Meyer U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,883 and Cable et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,054 also disclose metal frame members that are joined using special fastening techniques.